Smedley, Hensley present #IMOMSOHARD

By: Beth Giuffre - Updated: 11 months ago

Posted Jun 14, 2018

Mom-centric comedians to perform at Vina Robles June 16

PASO ROBLES— Two of the most hysterical moms ever to go viral are coming to Vina Robles Amphitheatre on Saturday, June 16. Jen Smedley and Kristin Hensley, who have more than 1.5 million followers on social media and more than 120 million views on their web series ‘IMOMSOHARD,’ will be making moms laugh until their not-ready-for summer swimsuit bellies ache for more of their act: #IMOMSOHARD: Round 2!

This is the comedy duo’s second nationwide tour. For their first round, “Mom’s Night Out-Summer Break Tour” the ladies hit 72 cities.

“It’s a raucous blast and a well-deserved night for moms who are craving that ‘recently released from prison’ type of evening,” the moms said, adding that their kids are older, but the show is brand new.

“It explores some of the same issues that we always have but in a different way — which is really fun,” said Hensley. “I should just tell you what the show isn’t. We don’t give any advice. We’re not trying to inspire anybody.”

Hensley said the show, which is usually “98 percent women and two percent very intimidated men,” is all about friendship and “hanging out with your girls and kind of getting back to what you were before you were tagged ‘moms.’”

Both ladies are from Nebraska, but they currently live in the suburbs of Los Angeles with their families. They said they usually like to touch on some “Nebraska-isms” during their act. If anyone comes to the show from Nebraska, Smedley said, “you can rest assured we’ll find them.” Hensley added, “The way we know is they’ll bring a crock-pot with something like Corn Flakes on top.”

In order to understand the genius of Smedley (the more socially polite one) and Hensley (the outspoken one), people just need to watch snippets of their large library of hilarious videos on www.imomsohard.com: particularly the introduction video when Smedley forgets the name of her daughter.

Smedley has a daughter, Delilah, age 3, and a 5-year-old son named Dashel. Hensley is mom to a daughter, Eleanor, age 6, and a 7-year-old son named Finn. (Hensley joked that two of her four children belong to Jen). They admit on their refreshingly candid videos that they are notgreatmoms, but they’regoodmoms. They really do love their kids and husbands, but they make fun of parenting in the same way that Vicki Iovine’s “Girlfriends Guides” take an honest and humorous look parenting.

In “I Babysitter So Hard” the BFFs talk about getting their money’s worth out of the high cost of babysitting and in “I Mom Bag So Hard” they take apart the contents of their purses until Hensley’s hair is covered in all the random barretts she finds in her purse. Other hysterical videos are “I Body Hair So Hard,” “We Game of Thrones So Hard” and “I Nighttime Routine So Hard.”

Smedley and Hensley tend to half-write/half-improvise before each of their video “conversations.” Smedley said they choose topics that are impacting their lives at any given moment. But, as good friends go, Hensley said they are usually on the same page.

In one of their most shared episodes, “I Swimsuit Season So Hard,” the moms try on the summer's hottest and most ridiculous swimwear, garnering over 20 million views and coverage in the world’s top news outlets.

They have recently appeared on The Today Show and The Doctors, to name a few, and they were chosen for People Magazine’s “Best of 2017.” Part of their plan for complete world mom-ination includes their own half-hour, multi-cam comedy which the moms are developing with CBS.

Watch one video, and then two, and three and 20 go by like the glasses of wine the girls drink in pretty much every video they make – and in the morning it’s mimosas. Hensley said she likes having shows in the wine country because it’s “The Holy Land.”

“I can sum up in a word what momming looks like for me in 2018,” Smedley said. “It’s saying the word, ‘no’ a lot. With the kids being three and five, I feel like such a buzzkill. Every fun idea they have is like dangerous or we don’t have time to accomplish at the moment, so I feel like I’m no fun.”

Hensley said she and her co-mom live by the idea of just being honest and they don’t want their audience to make the year such a pressure cooker. She explained, (after congratulating herself for bringing up a slow-cooker twice in the conversation), “Sometimes it’s just hard being a mom. And I think we just have to be okay with sometimes if you pull a seven out of your hat on a day that’s really awesome. Seven is the goal. Ten is not the goal.”